OBJECTIVE: To examine the cross-sectional and inter-temporal validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) for rural households in Burundi. DESIGN: Longitudinal survey about food security and agricultural production, individually administered by trained interviewers in June 2007 and 2012. SETTING: Ngozi, north of Burundi. SUBJECTS: Three hundred and fourteen household heads were interviewed. RESULTS: Tobit models showed that the HFIAS was significantly correlated with objective measures of food security, in this case total annual food production (P<0·01), livestock keeping (P<0·01) and coffee production (P<0·01) in both 2007 and 2012. This confirms that the HFIAS is cross-sectionally valid and corroborates the findings of previous studies. However, while total food production decreased by more than 25 % in terms of energy between 2007 and 2012, households reported an improvement in their perceived food security over the same period, with the HFIAS decreasing from 13·9 to 10·8 (P<0·001). This finding questions the inter-temporal validity of the HFIAS. It may be partly explained through response shifts, in which households assess their own food security status in comparison to that of their peers. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence from our study suggests that the HFIAS is cross-sectionally valid, but may not be inter-temporally valid, and should not be used as a single indicator to study temporal trends in food security.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the cross-sectional and inter-temporal validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) for rural households in Burundi. DESIGN: Longitudinal survey about food security and agricultural production, individually administered by trained interviewers in June 2007 and 2012. SETTING: Ngozi, north of Burundi. SUBJECTS: Three hundred and fourteen household heads were interviewed. RESULTS: Tobit models showed that the HFIAS was significantly correlated with objective measures of food security, in this case total annual food production (P<0·01), livestock keeping (P<0·01) and coffee production (P<0·01) in both 2007 and 2012. This confirms that the HFIAS is cross-sectionally valid and corroborates the findings of previous studies. However, while total food production decreased by more than 25 % in terms of energy between 2007 and 2012, households reported an improvement in their perceived food security over the same period, with the HFIAS decreasing from 13·9 to 10·8 (P<0·001). This finding questions the inter-temporal validity of the HFIAS. It may be partly explained through response shifts, in which households assess their own food security status in comparison to that of their peers. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence from our study suggests that the HFIAS is cross-sectionally valid, but may not be inter-temporally valid, and should not be used as a single indicator to study temporal trends in food security.
Authors: Erin M Milner; Kathryn J Fiorella; Brian J Mattah; Elizabeth Bukusi; Lia C H Fernald Journal: Matern Child Nutr Date: 2017-10-23 Impact factor: 3.092
Authors: Gwenyth O Lee; Pamela J Surkan; Jon Zelner; Maribel Paredes Olórtegui; Pablo Peñataro Yori; Ramya Ambikapathi; Laura E Caulfield; Robert H Gilman; Margaret N Kosek Journal: SSM Popul Health Date: 2018-02-23